Thursday, October 2, 2014

Out Actress Emily Rios On Why LGBT Actors Should Play LGBT Characters: "It's important. We should advocate for that because...we’re always going to respect those characters because we lived the life personally"

with out actress Emily Rios

Last night I
was particularly excited to attend the National
Hispanic Foundation for the Arts Annual Gala because one of my favorite
actresses, California native Emily Rios, was being honored. This summer she
came out publically as lesbian

With the
current controversy of Amazon’s new online TV show Transparent capitalizing off ‘transface’, where men humiliatingly play
the roles of trans* woman characters, which further misgenders, others and dehumanizes
our community, I thought I would interview Emily about the importance of LGBT
actors having the opportunity to play LGBT characters, especially since her trailblazing
character on FX’s ‘The Bridge’ is
also a lesbian Latina.

Trans Forming Media:

“Why do you think it’s important for
LGBT actors to play LGBT roles?”

Emily Rios:

“I think it’s important that we need
to do it [openly
LGBT actors playing LGBT characters on TV and in film] and the reason why we should advocate for that is because we come from
a level of respect and we’re always going to respect those characters because
we lived the life personally.

I would love that we won’t get
typecast in that sense and only have to play those characters forever, but as
far as us I feel like we shouldn’t stay closeted, you know, I feel we should
come out and feel comfortable playing those roles because I feel those are the
roles that are really going to set our careers forth because this is who we are
and this is what we live in a daily basis.

And really, when you come from a place with
any character when you can relate on a personal level it showcases on TV and I
feel the audience is always going to respect us more when we show respect to
the character”